Miami Arena: blowed up real good!

[PromoTheRobot]

Blow the roof off the sucker!

 

I visited Miami 3 times over the last 10 years or so. I was always struck at how they built this arena in Overton, a pretty bad section of town, then built the new American Airlines arena just a few blocks away only a few years later. Meanwhile Miami Arena sat like our own Aud turning into an eyesore until they blew it up today.

 

Anyone know the story behind this? Is it as dumb and wasteful as it seems to this outsider?

 

PTR

[HopsGuy]

Blow the roof off the sucker!

 

Anyone know the story behind this? Is it as dumb and wasteful as it seems to this outsider?

 

PTR

 

The Miami Arena was a victim of timing. In the late 80s, arenas were being build much the same as they had been in the previous 30 years. When the deluge of new arena starting going up in the mid 90s with the large number of luxury suites and fan amenities, the MA paled in comparison. There were enough investors & political will to increase local taxes to build two new arenas, so they did. IMHO, south FL would have lost both the Heat and the Panthers if they would have continued to play in the MA after 1998.

 

BTW, while the American Airlines Arena isn't far from the MA, it is near Bayfront which makes it a bit nicer. I've gone to a few Heat games there but we usually end up parking in a shady area. The Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise is way out near the swamps, but it's a pretty nice venue.

[LabattBlue]

The Miami Arena was a victim of timing. In the late 80s, arenas were being build much the same as they had been in the previous 30 years. When the deluge of new arena starting going up in the mid 90s with the large number of luxury suites and fan amenities, the MA paled in comparison. There were enough investors & political will to increase local taxes to build two new arenas, so they did. IMHO, south FL would have lost both the Heat and the Panthers if they would have continued to play in the MA after 1998.

 

BTW, while the American Airlines Arena isn't far from the MA, it is near Bayfront which makes it a bit nicer. I've gone to a few Heat games there but we usually end up parking in a shady area. The Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise is way out near the swamps, but it's a pretty nice venue.

The Heat and the Panthers play in different arena's?? I understand the need to have separate baseball and football stadiums, but hockey and basketball?

[PromoTheRobot]

The Heat and the Panthers play in different arena's?? I understand the need to have separate baseball and football stadiums, but hockey and basketball?

The Panthers are more a Fort Lauderdale franchise, playing in Sunrise, FL. The Heat play right near the waterfront in downtown Miami. I think it was a deliberate move, placing the Panthers in a community more likely (read: less ethnic) to follow them.

 

PTR

[buckeyemike]

The newscaster was pretty cute. I've always had a thing for Latinas.

[DrFishfinder]

Blow the roof off the sucker!

 

I visited Miami 3 times over the last 10 years or so. I was always struck at how they built this arena in Overton, a pretty bad section of town, then built the new American Airlines arena just a few blocks away only a few years later. Meanwhile Miami Arena sat like our own Aud turning into an eyesore until they blew it up today.

 

Anyone know the story behind this? Is it as dumb and wasteful as it seems to this outsider?

 

PTR

Here is one story from the My Yami Herald.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/695058.html

 

The story is the same six words that always make up the story:

"It all

comes down

to money."

 

Now the My Yami politicos want to use "tourist dollars" to finance a new stadium for the Marlins. Really.

The Marlins can't draw enough local fans to pay the stadium electric bill and somehow they think that a NEW stadium will bring fans in by the thousands. Annnnnd, tourists, who are fairly unlikely to attend any Marlin games by the by, are going to pay for the stadium.....until that idea gets railroaded out of town and local tax dollars get siphoned off to pay for another big sports venue flopattolah, which should get blown up in approximately....oh lets say......about 10 years from now. You heard it here first.

[WellDressed]

The newscaster was pretty cute. I've always had a thing for Latinas.

 

 

Boy Gerge is better looking

[Peter]

Basically, the story of the Miami Arena is as follows.

 

The NBA announced that Miami could have a franchise in approximately 1985 on the condition that an arena was built and that the prospective franchise had a certain number of season ticket deposits. The ownership group convinced the city to build an arena and that it would be satisfied with an arena that was patterned after the old Houston Summit. In other words, ownership said that it would be satisfied with a no frills arena.

 

The arena was built and was patterned after the Houston Summit. By the way, it was a great place to watch hockey and basketball as a fan -- not that that seems to make any difference to the ownership of sports franchses anymore.

 

After ownership got the franchise and the building was built, the Miami Heat started complaining that it was not good enough (eg., quality and quantity of boxes etc.). Both the Heat and the Panthers wanted new arenas. The tax payers in Miami-Dade built a new arena for the Heat and the taxpayers in Broward built a new one in Broward.

 

The fact of the matter is that old arena was great for the fans and under any set of circumstances, it really did not make financial sense to build two arenas for these teams. Both of the new arenas do not have the intimate fan experience of the old Miami Arena. Both of the new arenas are fairly antiseptic.

[scribo]

The newscaster was pretty cute. I've always had a thing for Latinas.

Well then.

[buckeyemike]

Well then.

 

Well then indeed.